Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Hyunoh laughed in a low voice. At moments like this, Doyeon wondered if he was trying to get on his nerves to enjoy his reactions.

Is he really some creep? I should have known when he rubbed the back of my hand last time. Why does he enjoy annoying other people?

Seyoung Shin, who had glanced between Hyunoh and Doyeon throughout their exchange, greeted Doyeon with a soft hello. “Are you Hyunoh’s friend?”

“Yeah. We hang out a lot, but we’re not that close.”

Seyoung laughed as though she’d heard a funny joke.

It wasn’t a joke. He was being honest.

“I attended middle school with Hyunoh. We’re not in the same club anymore, but we were back then.”

“Oh, I’m just his classmate. Name’s Doyeon Yoo.” Doyeon waved at her, wiping away the sharp glare he had fixed on Hyunoh.

“He’s not just my classmate; he’s my desk partner,” Hyunoh interrupted, but Doyeon and Seyoung ignored him.

His ears were starting to turn red after talking with Seyoung.

Seyoung Shin was much prettier up close… She possessed a kind of eye-catching attraction, but not in a romantic sense.

He always struggled when it came to talking with girls. Doyeon became wary of how he spoke and how he acted because they were also so small, with thin frames.

He turned to Hyunoh, feeling a little awkward. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Hyunoh. I thought you’d join some other club, like Physics or Coding.”

“I wanted to join an easy one,” Hyunoh waved him off. Then he leaned forward on his hands to stare out the window.

Doyeon stared at him.

The class president’s face seemed a little tired, which made him feel strange.

Kangbin, who had been pestering the other club members about what brand of chicken they ate, shoved his face above Doyeon’s shoulder to look at Seyoung Shin.

“Hey, Seyoung, you have over 100k subs on YouTube, right? How did you manage that?”

“What?”

Kangbin’s question was so out of the blue, but it was also expected of someone who thought about YouTube day in and day out.

“I have ten subscribers. Can you buy subscribers?”

“YouTube? Don’t you do social media? I heard you have a lot of followers there.”

Fortunately, Seyoung continued Kangbin’s conversation without getting offended. Kangbin’s background and looks must have played a part.

“Oh, you know about that? Do you know me? How?”

“Because you’re famous...? You should advertise your YouTube channel on your social media accounts. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of attention.”

“Advertising the channel there just felt weird. I want to gather subscribers with my videos alone.”

“Then try uploading shorts. It’s easier to gain more subscribers that way. What are your videos about?”

Kangbin began to explain his channel to Seyoung. He hadn’t let the class know about it either, so half of his subscribers were his family members.

Seyoung slowly became confused after watching Kangbin’s video.

“You filmed snacks... and rice? Why aren’t you filming above your neck?”

“It’s embarrassing to see my face in my own videos...” Kangbin smiled shyly.

What the hell is wrong with him...? Doyeon held back the urge to smack the back of Kangbin’s head.

“Then film them again so your face appears. Like, with your friend, or with Hyunoh.”

Seyoung turned to Hyunoh after looking at Kangbin and Doyeon.

“Hyunoh, why don’t you ever appear in videos? Last time you got in one frame, you kicked up a fuss about editing it out.”

“It gets annoying,” Hyunoh replied, opening a candy an upperclassman handed him.

Seyoung drummed on Hyunoh’s shoulder with her fists. “It’s not as if I said anything wrong! I just asked you to say hello! You didn’t have to embarrass me like that.”

“I’ll let you film me if you hit a million subscribers.”

“What the hell?” Seyoung glared.

Glare or not, Hyunoh rolled the candy in his mouth so that it bulged beneath his cheek and waved the wrapper in Doyeon’s direction.

“Want one?” he mouthed.

Doyeon shook his head at the silent question. Hyunoh shoved the last candy in his mouth too. He looked cute with a candy in each of his cheeks, so Doyeon clicked his tongue.

It must be nice to be handsome. He looks cute just because he ate some candy. Damn it…

Kangbin slung his arm around Doyeon after listening to Hyunoh and Seyoung talk.

“But why are you two in this club? Are you two dating?”

“I just... wanted to join a quiet club. Hyunoh and I were always in the same clubs since middle school, so this just happened,” Seyoung replied, avoiding the question about their relationship.

“The same clubs?”

“Yeah. Like, Media Club? He was on the directing team and I was an announcer.”

“Then you must have dated for a long time, counting your middle school years.”

When Kangbin went that far, Hyunoh intervened with a bored tone. “We’re not dating.”

“What?”

“I’m not dating her.” He sounded done with such misunderstandings.

Seyoung glanced at Hyunoh’s expression twice, while Kangbin nodded with a bright smile and a “I see!”

“But Hyunoh, then who would you date? I heard your previous girlfriend was really pretty.”

Seyoung’s glare turned sharp.

Hyunoh tilted his head, muttering “Oh yeah...?” with a dry voice, but caved to Kangbin’s tenacious questions. “Someone who eats well.”

“Eats well?”

“Yeah.”

“So... someone curvy?”

“I don’t care about that. I just like someone who eats well,” Hyunoh replied as he crunched on the candies.

“Isn’t that what grandparents say? When they say they want daughter-in-laws that eat well?” Kangbin laughed.

He switched topics back to YouTube. Seyoung glanced at Hyunoh several times before joining in the conversation again.

Doyeon stared at Hyunoh, resting his chin on his hands. Someone who eats well? That was a unique preference. Don’t people usually say “someone pretty” or “someone cute and sexy” when they’re asked about preferences?

Doyeon didn’t eat well. In fact, he ate little. He liked delicious food, but he didn’t like the feeling of being full, so he ate as much as he needed and no more.

Hyunoh must have noticed Doyeon’s gaze because he turned around from the plant he was poking. The moment their eyes met, he smiled easily.

“What is it now?” Hyunoh asked.

“I was just thinking we really don’t get along.”

Doyeon realized he would never be close to Hyunoh Gong. With his preference being someone who liked eating well, he supposed Hyunoh wouldn’t be interested in someone who ate little.

It was strange how they stood on polar opposites over every little detail.

Hyunoh laughed, surprised. “Out of the blue?”

“Do you think so? I think my inner voice got out.”

“Doyeon, you must really hate me.”

Doyeon internally rolled his eyes. Think of every crappy thing you did to me until now.

Besides the box of snacks he gave him on Pi Day, he had been a huge jerk. Mocking him the day they became desk partners, calling him a lackey on a random day…

“Then what about you? It’s not as if you like me.” Doyeon asked with a cringe.

Hyunoh shrugged. “Not really?”

“Oh, we have one thing in common.”

“Right, how nice.”

“Mm-hmm, how nice.”

They agreed and smiled at each other. Then, they turned their faces to wipe their smiles off.

* * *

On a very sunny day, when the skies were blue, their homeroom teacher brought a stack of A4 papers.

Doyeon spun his pencil as he eyed the papers on the desk. The loud students got quiet and the desk was knocked on for attention.

“Children, you all know each other’s faces and names, right? As a special activity today, we will be writing about each other’s first impressions. Just because it’s anonymous doesn’t mean you can swear or write something bad, yes?”

Writing each other’s first impressions by swapping around papers with their names on them? It sounded like those poster-rolling papers for special events.

The first row began passing back papers, and while Doyeon thought the teacher must have run out of ideas somewhere during the semester, he began to write his opinions carefully.

For one kid, he wrote how he liked their constant smile, while for another, he wrote he liked their handwriting he saw on the chalkboard.

Then he got a paper with Hyunoh’s name.

“Hmm...”

Doyeon covered the paper with his arm so Hyunoh couldn’t see and thought for a long time with his mechanical pencil in the air.

First impressions...?

He didn’t have anything.

Of course, he could write “annoying” or “is a jerk irl,” but he wasn’t that petty, regardless of whether the comment would be anonymous or not.

Instead, he chose two words.

[Laughing? Seriously?]

He’d acted all nice and kind when Doyeon first saw him with that smile, but he turned mean later.

In that case, why had Hyunoh smiled at him? Why was his first impression nice?